Headlight and attachment therefor



May 30, 1933. c. a. ALDRICH HEADLIGHT AND ATTACHMENT THEREFOR Filed Sept. 10, 1931 Patented May 30, 1933 UNITED: STATES (mane. ALDRICH, or MEDFOBDLIMASSACHUSETIS rrnnnrrenr Ann ATTACHMENT THEREFOR Application filed September 10, 1931'. .Serial No 562,122.

.My invention relates to electrical headlights for vehicles and particularly to glarepreventing attachments for the lamps of headlights of the character indicated.

The invention has for its object -to improve the construction of headlights of the charac ter described and to provide, 'as a new article of manufacture, an improved glare-preventing attachment for the electric lamp of a headlight.

A glare-preventing attachment for the lamp of a headlight of the class to which my present invention relates is illustrated and described in my copending application Senal No. 519,150 filed February 28th, 1931.

The headlight shown and described in sald application comprises a main parabolic reflector within which is arranged an electric lamp that is supported with its filament approximately co-incidingwlth the focal point of said reflector. Also a small auxiliary .re-

fleeting shield is provided in fro-ntpf and close to said lamp having a lower skirt portion whose rear side provides a pair of vertically disposed reflecting surfaces. These two surfaces diverge forwardly from, and opposite sides of, a vertical plane co-rncident and parallel with the axis of the lamp so as to intercept and deflect laterally on to the parabolic reflector direct light rays from the lamp which strike thereon and which would otherwise issue from the front of the headlight without striking on to the parabolic reflector, thereby to cause said parabolic reflector to reflect the same forwardly in the same general direction as the main beam of light issuing from the headlight.

Also, the auxiliary reflecting shield of said application is provided at its top with a rearwardly inclined ray-interceptmg and deflecting visor which prevents the exit of any direct light rays from the upper portion of the parabolic reflector.

. My present invention provides an improved headlight structure which is preferably provided with a reflecting shield of the. type shown and described in said application and it also provides, as a new article of manufac ture, an improved glare-preventing attachment for the p of a ed light 0f the class I i i I indicated.

a In the accompanying drawing :v Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view .of a portion of an electric headlight constructed in accordance with my invention;

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the lamp of the headlight illustrated in Figure 1 showing'a glare-preventing attachment mounted thereon which is constructed in accordance with my present invention. v Figure 3 is a front elevation of the parts shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 is a in Figure 2. c i

Figure 5 is a section on line 55 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a plan view of the sheet metal blank from which the body portion of the glare-preventing attachment, hereinafter described, is or can be produced by means of bending, dies.

In the accompanying drawing 10 repre:

plan view of'the parts shown sents the usual parabolic reflector. of an electric headlight for vehicles; 11 the lens there"- of and 12 the usual electric lamp arranged within the reflector 10 with its filament 13 ooincident, or approximately;co-incident, with the focal pointof the inner reflecting surface of reflector 10. I i

Upon the lamp 12, and within the reflector 10, is mounted a glare-preventing shield-14 comprising a parti-conical socket base portion 15 having at its rear end three'longitudi nally disposed lug extensions 16 'to fit flat wiseupon the base 17 of lamp 12. I

The socket base portion 15 is securely held in position upon the base 17 and against the lamp to properly position the same. Also this spring strap serves as means by which the attachment is separably or removably fastened in position upon the lamp base.

Extending forwardly and upwardly from the top of socket base is a narrow integral arm 21 whose forward end is also integral with the top central portion of an auxiliary ray-intercepting and reflecting shield S.

Shield S is made with two vertical walls 22 constituting the lower portion thereof, while its upper portion is constituted by a rearwardly inclined visor 23 that is co-extensive in length with the walls 22. The arm 21 is intergrally connected with the top of vlsor 23 at the middle of the latter.

The rear sides of the vertical walls 22 provide a pair of flat reflecting surfaces 24 which diverge forwardly from, and at opposite sides of, a vertical plane co-incident and parallel with the axes of the parabolic reflector and the lamp so as to intercept and deflect laterally on to the reflector forwardly directed light rays from filament 13 which would otherwise issue from the front of the headlight without striking on to the parabolic reflector."

As shown in Fig. 1 the bottom edges of the vertical walls 22, at the middle of the bulb 18 are approximately in the same horizontal plane with the bottom portion of the filament 13 so that only downwardly and forwardly directed rays of light can pass directly from the filament through lens 11.

The rear under side of the visor 23 is also a reflecting surface by which direct rays from filament 13 are intercepted and'deflected on to the main reflector of the headlight.

Except as *pointed out hereinafter, the glare-preventing attachment herein illustrated functions the same as that shown and describedin my co-pending application referred to above so far as its control of, or effect upon, the light rays from the lamp is concerned. The construction of the present attachment, however, is an improvement upon that shown and described in my said copending application;

Theparti-conical base portion'15 of the attachment herein shown not only serves, by its engagement with the bulb 18, to assist in holding the auxiliary reflecting shield in its proper position immediately in front of, but out of contact with, said bulb, but in the best form of my present invention the interior surface of this parti-c'onical base portion is a light'reflecting surface which serves the purpose of eliminating or preventing certain objectionablehot spots which appear upon the lower rear portion of reflector 10 when the attachment is constructed as illustrated in my co-pending application. Y

' These hot spots were due to light rays passing rearwardly from the filament which were-deflected forwardly by radiator 10 on to the rear under side of visor 23 by which they were again deflected rearwardly and downwardly so as to produce the objection able hot spots referred to.

The parti-conical base portion 15 intercepts these direct rearwardly projected light rays and deflects the same laterally in a diffused manneron to reflector 10 from which latter they are projected forwardly as part of the main beam.

The attachmentherein illustrated is preferably produced bymeans of a bending die or dies from a one-piece blank such as is illustrated in Fig. 6. As shown in Fig. 6, this blank comprises a stem portion 21a that is finally given the stiffening U-shaped cross sectional form illustrated in Fig. 5.

-At-one end'of the stem portion 21a the blank is enlarged by an arcuate end portion 15a formed upon. its outer end edge with the lugs 16 and hook portions 20. This enlarged end portion of the blank is finally given the parti-conical shape illustrated in the other figures of the drawing.

At the opposite end of the stem 21a is provided an enlargement S that is bent on the dot-and-dash lines shown in Fig. 6 so as to providethe walls 22 and visor 23 illustrated in the other figures of the drawing.

In practice the blank shown in F 6 is preferably chrome plated and polished upon one slde so as to provide that side with efficient reflecting surfaces. These reflecting surfaces are those which are exposed to the light rays from lamp 12 in Fig. 1.

The above described attachment for the lamp of an electric headlight is of very strong and durable construction and with ordinary care it will remain in serviceable condition indefinitely and can be readily transferred from one lamp to another when necessary.

What I claim is: .1 v

1. In a headlight, the combination with the lamp thereof, of glare-preventing means comprising a sheet metal coveringfor the rear part of the bulb of said lamp; means for fastening said covering in position on said lamp; a rlgld arm having one end thereof connected with said covering, said arm extending forwardly alongside of the bulb of I said lamp, and a glare-preventing shield connected with the forward end of said arm and supported by the latter in front of said bulb, said shield having a lower portion made upon its rear side with a pair of vertical reflecting surfaces which diverge forwardly from and at opposite sides of a straight vertical line intersecting the axis of said lamp closely adjacent to the latter so as to intercept and deflect laterally direct light rays from thelamp filament which strikes thereon, and also having an upper portion. consisting of a rearwardly inclined. ray-interceptingand deflectmg VlSOI.

2. In a headlight, the combination with the lamp thereof, of glare-preventing means constructed in acordanc'e with claim 1 and wherein the lower edge of said skirt portion extends transversely opposite the middle portion of the bulband wherein said rearwardly inclined ray-intercepting visor is made upon its rear side with a pair of reflecting surfaces which diverge forwardly from and at opposite sides of the middle of said shield.

3. As a new article of manufacture, a glare-preventing attachment for the lamp of an electric headlight, said attachment comprising a single piece of sheet metal bent to provide a parti-conical cover for the rear part of the bulb of said lamp; a narrow rigid arm integral with and extending forwardly from said cover alongside of the bulb of said lamp, said arm being bowed transversely inwardly so that it is U-shaped in cross-section, and a glare-preventing shield integral with the forward end of said arm and supported by the latter in front of said bulb, said shield having a lower skirt portion made upon its rear side with a pair of vertical reflecting surfaces which diverge forwardly from and at opposite sides of a straight Vertical line intersecting the axis of said lamp closely adjacent to the latter so as to intercept and deflect laterally direct light rays from the lamp filiinent which strike thereon and also having an upper portion consisting of a rearwardly inclined ray-intercepting and diverting visor coextensive in width with the width of said skirt, and means for separably fastening said cover in position on said lamp.

Signed by me at Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, this 9th day of September,

CARL G. ALDRICH. 

